Guerrillas Take Villagers

U.S. & LATIN AMERICA - Latin America & Caribbean - In Brief

August 1, 2002

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Leftist guerrillas forced hundreds of people to leave a rural Colombian village, turning it into a virtual ghost town, the army said Wednesday, but it did not know where the townsfolk went. Guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a 17,000-strong band known by the Spanish acronym FARC, told the people of Puerto Alvira, in the central Colombian province of Meta, to leave Saturday, said the army, whose soldiers spoke to the few locals who remained.